Anniversary
by Kelex
Summary: A momentous anniversary heals a past rift (Clark/Lex)


  
Anniversary--Kel  
  
Warnings: Lex-biased; future fic. There is no Lois, and Superman never died fighting Doomsday so I guess that's AU  
  
Lex had known from a young age that he had an exceptional memory. It had always served him well, and he was thankful for it. For the most part. He thought this as he studied his reflection in the mirror, seeing the same face staring back at him that had stared at him every day of his life. No wrinkles, no sign of having aged thirty years, all thanks to the those damnable Kryptonite meteors. He'd lost his hair, but his body had been altered and he'd gained immortality. Not a bad trade, all told, but today… he just wished everything were different. Including his exceptional memory.  
  
Only today, he wished he couldn't remember a goddamned thing. This day, every year. The same remembrance, the same wish for forgetfulness. The memory of a thirty year old pain, the renewed ache of a heart thirty years dead.  
  
A single red rose; a small toy Porsche. One quote, always the same, printed on a plain white card in the same bold hand that never changed. _We have a future together, Lex. And I don't want anything to stand in the way of our friendship._ A plain white card, just like the twenty-nine other cards in his desk. A toy car just like twenty-nine others locked in his personal chest. A rose, just like twenty-nine others, carefully preserved.  
  
Thirty years since he had loved. Thirty years since he had stopped giving a damn about being anything but a Luthor. Thirty years since a betrayal of hard-given trust that had collapsed his world around him. Thirty years, and still so much hurt. Thirty years and not a single feeling gone. Everything still there, every emotion as raw and jagged as it was when Clark had taken Lex on their only flight together, confessing as he'd carried Lex safely in his arms.  
  
Lex flipped the note over, preparing to file it with the others when handwriting caught his eye. _Haven't you punished me enough?_ He tucked the card into his jacket and left his office. He climbed to the top of the LexCorp skyscraper and looked to the figure shrouded in the shadows.  
  
"Lex."  
  
Lex drew the card out of his pocket and brandished it between them. "Punishing **you?**" was all he said.  
  
"Both of us," the figure said softly. "I couldn't stay away, Lex. I never meant for my secret to come between us. And then, when it did… I became who I became to show you I was still the same. Always saving people. I even lived a double life for you, Lex. Kept my lives as separate as I could so that Clark Kent would always be untouched by the things that I did." Superman stepped forward, into the dying daylight. "You could have had Clark all along. But we both clung to the hurts and the lies. Now I'm here, for both our sakes." Superman stepped even closer to Lex and yanked off his cape. His costume followed, and soon it was no longer Superman that faced him but Clark Kent. "If you want me, Lex, I'm yours," Clark said softly. His eyes glowed, and then two beams of heat-vision lanced out and set the discarded cape and suit ablaze. "I gave him thirty years of a life we should have had together."  
  
Lex had watched everything silently, and when Clark set fire to his costume, Lex was finally moved to speak. A simple accusation that had taken him thirty years to make. "I trusted you."  
  
Clark nodded. "I know."  
  
"I did it for you, Clark. Because I didn't give a damn about the rest of the world. But Clark Kent thought I was better than my father. And I was, for a time. But then I found out that you were worse than my father ever was. At least when he lied to me, he didn't hide them in words of love. I trusted you, Clark. And you never trusted me." In fascinated horror, Lex watched as Clark knelt before him.   
  
"You're right, Lex. I made mistakes, and it's my fault you turned out this way. I tried to come back to you and help, but it always turned into such a hateful rivalry. I never knew how to bridge the gap."  
  
Lex looked at the tableau in front of him. Clark was naked, on his knees, head bowed and waiting for Lex's judgement. Oh, how many times had Lex envisioned this very thing, Superman helpless before him, waiting for the justly meted out punishment, retribution for all the pain. Lex's hands hovered over Clark's head, and then he slowly buried them in Clark's raven tresses. Using the gentle touch, he pulled Clark to his feet. "I wanted to hate you, Clark, but I never stopped loving you."  
  
Clark let himself be guided into Lex's arms and rested his cheek on top of the other man's bald skull. "I always loved you, Lex, I just didn't know how to reach you. I didn't want to wait so long."  
  
"It's all right, Clark." Lex wrapped his arms around the larger man. "The past is the past; the best we can do is look to the future. A wise man's son once told me that."  
  
Clark recognized his father's favorite saying, and he remembered repeating it to Lex. "Do we have a future, Lex?"  
  
"Of course we do, Clark. We have a future together. And I don't want anything to get in the way of our friendship this time." Again to Lex's surprise, the Kryptonian wept softly. Not for what was, but for the chance at what could be.  
  
They would fight for the future. Together.  
  
Finis  
  


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